Is Automotive SEO Important For My Dealership?

Should I invest in automotive SEO for my dealership? 

SEO (search engine optimization) has been the topic of speculation recently roaming the internet. Many questions regarding whether it is useful, what the best practices are, how to apply them to specific businesses, and many more are rising as people are wondering what to do, how to improve their online presence and increase leads and sales.

You will surely find many different answers to these questions online from people that swear by SEO to people that will surprisingly say that it is dead! At DealersGear we like setting the tone straight and putting things into perspective. First of all we can definitely tell you that SEO is very far from dead! Next we shall walk you through what it really is, what it means for you and how you can utilize it to generate success in your business.

What is SEO?

SEO is the organizing of all aspects of your online presence in order for you to reach your intended audience. In plain English, it means that your website, social media pages and any other methods you use to promote your business are getting in front of the people that matter to you most.

Is SEO important for your dealership?

With the vast amount of information available on the internet, people are exposed daily to thousands of ads and other pieces of information that they have learned to ignore. This is called selective listening or selective viewing. In which the brain blocks out information that it thinks is repetitive or useless.

Having this ability helps people narrow down what they see and hear to include only what interests them. Google, and other search engines understand this human behavior and have optimized their technology to accommodate it. As their success relies heavily on being able to provide people with relevant information that they will find useful.

So coming back to our question of whether SEO is important for your dealership, the answer is that it is not only important, but vital to the success of any business that wishes to have an online presence. Having the proper SEO strategies in place will ensure you are ranking at the top of the list when people search for your products and services.

If not optimized properly, you risk losing potential customers to your competition that rank higher in search engines. When someone searches for a product or service that you currently offer, you want your name to show up on the top of the list, not on the 3rd page. Research has shown that 60% of traffic from google is sent to the top three websites that appear in the search results.

How does SEO work?

In this article we will tackle the different aspects of SEO and how you can utilize them at your dealership to fit your specific marketing needs. As technology develops, SEO tactics have evolved to a level of sophistication that is unseen before, and the practices that were in place a few years ago are considered to be outdated. In the next section we will cover how SEO actually works, the best practices you should follow to stay on top of your industry, as well as those practices that you should avoid.

Search engines use algorithms to determine what information to display in front of people while conducting their search. These algorithms mature year after year and new technology is developed to enhance user experience and filter out repetitive spam and other useless information. As they continue to develop, marketing strategies must evolve to keep up with the current trends and stay on top of the game. Staying up to date with your SEO is planning for future success and keeping your dealership at the top of the ranking list and giving you that cutting edge advantage over your competitors especially in these crucial times of rapid technological advancements.

What are outdated SEO practices to avoid? 

SEO practices that have been used in the past don’t produce the results they once did! As Google and other search engines get smarter the following outdated practices are dying out.

Keyword Stuffing:

Using keywords is important to target your audience. However, the days of cramming a page with as many keywords as possible is over. Search engines will make note of the amount of keywords in a page and might flag it as spam or irrelevant, and the more keywords might cause more harm than good and could stand in the way of you reaching potential customers. Being selective in the both quality and amount of words you use is crucial to sustaining a high ranking online presence.

Generated or duplicated content:

Content is a decisive factor in determining the success of your online marketing campaign. However, computer generated content or content that is copied from other websites or pages will most likely flag your website for authenticity. As the ability for search engines to track content on your website increases, the need to produce relevant, highly informative content is critical to keeping you at the top of search results.

Too many links:

Having links within your website is important in helping your customers navigate and find what they are looking for. The most common mistake people make is trying to insert as many links as possible in their pages in hopes that they will rank higher. In reality things work exactly the opposite. Best practises say that it is ok to have one link for about every 125 words. And external links (which are links leading to external domains) should be inserted only one time per post. Otherwise, the search engines will notice the excessive amount of links and flag your website for spam.

What are SEO best practices?

Best practices are those that when set in place will give you an advantage over your competition and will enable you to reach your intended target audience that will end up in closing a sale.

User Intent:

User intent simply means the intention or goal the user has when searching for a particular topic using a search engine. Optimizing the information in your website keeping user intent in mind is crucial. Instead of trying the one size fits all approach that has been used in the past, finding what your customers really want and providing them with only relevant content is key to the success of your digital marketing campaign.

Organic and unique content:

The days of copying and pasting the same keywords and content on all web pages has become outdated. Google and other search engines have realized that customers want to see relevant, and useful information only when conducting their search. They have developed their technology to filter out repetitive content and mark them as spam. Creating organic posts that provide useful information on your products and services or on topics related to your industry, as well as being able to capture relevant feedback from customers that have experienced dealing with you is the new way of making sure your dealership ranks at the top of search results.

Having a strategy:

Being successful in SEO with all the aspects that need to be covered can seem overwhelming. Especially for a dealership that is trying to establish a strong online presence, or if they have been using the old outdated practices that are no longer getting the same results. Having a precise SEO strategy in place will guide you on what needs to be done and will enable you to measure your progress along the way and adjust as necessary.

What we can do for you at DealersGear

With current market velocity and technological innovations, staying on top of the game might seem challenging! Keeping up with changes can become overwhelming! That's where we come into play!

At DealersGear we understand the frustrations a dealership faces on a daily basis. Our dedication to building innovative technology that helps dealerships has been the key to our success. We have built our technology from the ground up directly from the concerns and complaints of dealership owners, managers and employees

Change can be difficult without the proper help! Implementing a digital marketing campaign might seem like a struggle at first! At DealersGear it is our priority to stay up to date with the most advanced marketing tactics and technologies within the industry. As technology is always evolving it is essential to employ the most cutting edge strategies in automotive SEO. At DealersGear we understand that change is the only constant, and we have customized our technology to be versatile and adaptive to suit your specific needs in an ever changing market.

We are excited to help your dealership achieve the highest success rates by optimizing your online presence. We offer a free evaluation of your dealership and provide you with a number of options that best suit your individual requirements. Contact us today, for a free demo to see how we can take your dealership to the next level!

Automotive SEO for Car Dealers: https://www.dealersgear.com/automotive-seo